Comfort Music: POWER POWER POINT POINT

Join Sam Scranton as he invokes the light of a thousand suns in the name of high quality and compliance with quality system requirements. With the mellow sounds of garbage percussion, gentle flickers of flame and fragrance from Yankee Candles, and hopefully, a TV with some stuff on it, Sam will create a ceremonial atmosphere designed to give rest to weary visitors— a purposive rest that will renew one's inner drive toward a future built on high quality.

Hello. I’m your host, Ben Zucker. You’re listening to a special live episode O UR GAB, a composition in the shape of a podcast. Or maybe it’s a podcast in the shape of a composition. Who knows. You will hear words in the shape of music, and music in the shape of words. These words may be about things. We are here to offer you a listening experience where you will take nothing for granted, to learn and hear and question. There will be stories, there will be interviews with special guests, there will be things neither of us can anticipate. All that’s left to do now is to begin. You are encouraged to sit back, turn the volume up, and make a cup of coffee, the way you might listen to another podcast. But this is not another special live episode of a podcast. This is O. UR. GAB.

Sam Scranton (b. 1981) is a composer/performer working at the intersection of music, performance art, and installation. He has been described in New Music Box as "an artist taking wholehearted risks" and in the New York Times as a "killer drummer". Recent projects include: We Are Predatory, Air-Breathing, for alto sax, accordion, percussion, MIDI playback and TTS voice, commissioned by Gyre Ensemble; HOLOLITH, a durational work of speculative music, commissioned by Mocrep; HOLOTYPE, premiered by Spektral Quartet; and MIMIC, an evening-length musical rite developed in close collaboration with Ellen McSweeney for presentation at Omaha Under the Radar Festival. Sam has presented his music nationally and internationally at festivals and conferences such as Composit Festival, New Music Gathering, and the International Conference on Music and Minimalism. As part of the band volcano!, Sam has performed onstage in Berlin, Moscow, London, and Paris, with albums released by Leaf Label (UK). In early 2018, Parlour Tapes+ will release his debut solo album, High Quality Final Days. Sam lives and works in Chicago, pursuing a doctorate in composition at Northwestern University.

Experimenting with musical relationality and constellating concepts amongst people, objects, and histories, Ben Zucker actively merges practice as a composer and multi-instrumentalist improviser. Recent commissions include the LA Percussion Quartet, Musica Nucleo Nova, and Outset Dance. He performs as a singing and noisy vocalist, trumpeter, pianist, and percussionist around the world, including at the Banff Centre, Southbank Centre, the New York Fringe Festival, as a founding member of The Improviser's Choir and electro-salsa collective Arcadio, and on solo records for Not Art Records and Verz Imprint. Formerly resident in Connecticut, London, and Berkeley, Ben is currently a PhD student at Northwestern University in Chicago.

--Comfort Music, every ThursdayDoors open at 7 pm, show starts promptly at 7:30 pmNo cover (donations encouraged and appreciated!)**No Alcohol is permitted at Comfort Station**